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Monthly Archives: May 2018

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was massive immigration into the United States. Otto Kolschowsky was among the immigrants from Germany who arrived in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was a gateway to most immigrants who sought employment from the thriving manufacturing industries. In 1909, Kolschowsky opened a small butchery to serve the surging German community. By the time the First World War was ending, his business had thrived into wholesale operations prompting him to open an additional branch at Maywood. As time passed, more opportunities emerged that spurred growth even further. One of the most remarkable opportunities was the partnership with McDonald’s for the supply of beef products.

Change of leadership

Since inception, the company was mainly run as a family business. However, in 1975 the company rebranded from Otto & Sons to OSI industries. At the same time, Sheldon Lavin, an investment consultant at the company joined as a partner. His entry saw a change of the leadership positions where he later became the CEO.

Leadership under Sheldon Lavin

The entry of Sheldon Lavin into the business saw expansion both locally and internationally. The first facility outside Chicago was opened in 1977 in West Jordan Utah. Expansion into the North American territories continued in the seventies and eighties. Mr. Lavin is credited to have brought in his expertise and skills from the banking sector that necessitated global growth. The company diversified their focus from only McDonalds to other sectors of the food industry. The diversification led to substantial increase that made the company become among the most significant food processing companies in the US and across the world. The considerable growth since Sheldon Lavin joined the company can be attributed to the massive purchases, joint ventures, and acquisitions. OSI’s Sheldon Lavin receives Global Visionary Award.

Continued expansion

Global expansion has continued at a positive rate with footprints in over sixty-seven countries. Expansion into Asia and Europe has been the most successful. For instance, the opening of the first facility in Japan in 2010 helped the company gain access to the Asian-Pacific markets where it has continued to thrive. The company has laid their focus on the expansion of the European market in the past few years. Several facilities have been opened in several regions across the region for example in Germany and Poland. Due to the continued venture and the positive outlook into Europe, the company established a regional office in Gersthofen Germany.

Founded in 1909 as a family-owned neighborhood meat market and butcher shop in the Chicago area called Otto & Sons, the OSI Group is now a global food industry juggernaut. The man behind the company’s explosive growth into an international powerhouse is CEO Sheldon Lavin. He has been at the helm for almost 40 years and has led the company to a spectacular series of expansions. Through building and acquisitions the company now has over 70 food production facilities in 17 countries on 5 continents. All of this growth is a result of Sheldon Lavin’s long-term vision.

Lavin has vast business experience and a wide range of skills. After studying accounting and finance in college, Lavin went on to have a lucrative career in banking. He then started an accounting firm and became active in investing. It was when Otto & Sons came to Lavin’s accounting company for financial help that he became interested in the food industry. Sheldon Lavin arranged the financing for them and became a major investor in the company. He was impressed with the quality of their products and their potential for growth. By the early 1980s, Lavin owned the company.

As soon as he took control of the company, Lavin changed its name to the OSI Group and began to implement a very aggressive global expansion plan. It included controlling food processing facilities in as far flung places as Australia, Brazil, China, Hungary and Mexico. Lavin increased the OSI Group’s production efforts in the United States by building food processing facilities in Riverside, California, Chicago, West Chicago and Geneva, Illinois, West Jordan, Utah, Oakland, Iowa and Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. He also acquired an Amick Farms facility on the East Coast of the U.S.

Sheldon Lavin is now a legend in the food services industry. His company has a presence in 85 countries, 10 facilities in China and he is expanding their European customer base by buying Baho Foods in the Netherlands and U.K. based Flagship Europe. Even with his extensive expansion efforts, the quality of the food the OSI Group produces has improved and the variety has increased. Plus, the production and environmental stewardship procedures he has created has led to the Lavin and his company winning dozens of awards and numerous accolades. Recently Sheldon Lavin was given the Global Visionary award by the Vision World Academy for his work in building the OSI Group.

Wes Edens is a successful businessman based in New York City. He graduated from Oregon State University in 1984 and, armed with a bachelor’s degree in finance and business administration, decided to enter the financial industry. His career started at Lehman Brothers and he stayed there for six years. Before he left he was a managing director as well as a partner of this firm. In 1993 he left to join BlackRock where he worked in their BlackRock Asset Investors division, focusing on private equity.Along with some business partners Wes Edens established Fortress Investment Group in 1998. This is a globally diversified investment firm which is pretty well known in the industry for making contrarian bets and building up the companies they acquire. He is currently a principal of this company, a Co-CEO, and is on the Management Committee. His role at this company is to manage its private equity investments and also manage its alternative investment transactions.

Fortress Investment Group was sold to SoftBank Group Corporation, a giant Japanese company, at the end of 2017. The deal was for $3.3 billion and Wes Edens made about $512 million from this sale. Additionally, he earned $11.4 million that year from bonus dividends and another $1.4 million that he garnered from unvested shares he owned. He and the rest of the management team stayed in their positions after this sale concluded.In 2014 he decided to branch out his business activities to sports. Along with Marc Lasry he bought the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise for $550 million. They had promised at the time to keep the team in Milwaukee and had pledged to build a new arena.

This was followed through on and the Bucks will start playing later this year in the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center. This stadium cost $524 million and will be used for much more beyond basketball, such as conventions and concerts. Over the last four years the value of this team has increased to $1.075 billion.Wes Edens is also now an owner in the esports arena. He bought the Cloud9 Challenger’s League Championship Series for $2.5 million. This also included the contracts for four of the teams that play in this series. He is the fourth owner of an NBA franchise to invest in esports leagues joining Rick Fox, Peter Guber, and the ownership group behind the Houston Rockets.

Randal Nardone is a New York City-based businessman who works in the financial industry. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology there as well as one in English. He then attended the Boston University School of Law which is where he earned his law degree. He is one of the co-founders of Fortress Investment Group, and business that invests in a number of assets. This includes distress debt, private equity, and credit hedge funds. He is a principal of this firm and has been on its Management Committee since it was founded in 1998. He has also served as an interim chief executive officer for two years and as the CEO for a year.

His professional career started out at a New York law firm called Thacher Proffitt & Wood. He made partner before moving on to Blackrock Financial Management, Inc. In 1997 he joined UBS where Randal Nardone was a managing director for a year before deciding to become an entrepreneur. His company Fortress Investment Group LLC now manages around $43.6 billion and is owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. Last year he was compensated $8.8 million for the work he does at Fortress.Beyond his role at Fortress Investment Group, Randal Nardone also serves on the board of a number of the companies owned by his company.

Among these are Springleaf Holdings, Gagfah, Brookdale Senior Living, and New Residential Investment Corporation. He has been affiliated with many companies in the past he has provided advice to such as Mapeley Limited, Aircastle Limited, Drive Shack Inc., RIC Coinvestment Fund LP, SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd. and OneMain Holdings, Inc., among others.It was in 2007 that Randal Nardone made Forbes’ “World’s Billionaires” list. He had at the time about $1.8 billion in assets. This was in the year that his company had successfully issued an initial public offering.

Many entrepreneurs have tried investing in the hospitality sector. Few have succeeded, and many have failed. Shiraz Boghani is among the most successful entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry. He joined the industry many years ago, and he has been able to grow and succeed in the competitive industry.

Boghani has invested wisely since he is a chartered accountant from the Prestigious Institute of Chartered Accounts. He is the founder and CEO of one of the most successful hotel holdings company in the United Kingdom; Splendid Hospitality Group. On top of that, he has invested heavily in Sussex Health Care where he is the co-founder and chairman.

Sussex Health Care is the best healthcare provider in Sussex and its environs in providing healthcare services. The center was founded to offer professional care services to patients suffering neurological disorders, terminal illnesses as well as the elderly who require personalized care. As the chairman of the nursing home, he has helped the care center grow and open many care centers in Sussex. Shiraz Boghani has ensured that the care center is adequately equipped with apparatuses that improve the quality of life for their clients.

Shiraz Boghani has been pivotal in ensuring that all the patients in the nursing homes are treated with respect and professionalism. He has made sure that all employees are highly trained and undergo training now and then to ensure that patients receive top class services. To make life better for patients at the care facility, he has made sure that patients receive quality food and enjoy fun activities that they like. This has ensured that patients feel at home and enjoy their stay at the facility. Thus, the nursing home attracts more clients which is good for business.

As the CEO and founder of Splendid Hospitality Group, Shiraz Boghani has invested heavily in the hotel industry. Under his leadership, Splendid has developed and managed many hotels across the UK. There are many classic hotels under the management of his group. Master Robert Hotel, Vanbrugh House Hotel, The New Ellington, The Grand Hotel & Spa, Hotel Indigo York, Hilton London Bankside, and Holiday Inn Wembley are some of the significant investments of Shiraz and Splendid Hospitality Group. Due to excellence in his work, Shiraz Boghani was awarded the Hotelier of the year during the Asian Business Awards of 2016.

There might be a short supply these days of what might be called as morally calibrated entrepreneurs who pay the price for their ideas. The society we live in could be argued to be depraved with the right people who should be providing the best possible quality services that the world needs. We don’t get that many people who are offering the kind of service that we can be proud of. However, we also have business leaders, risk-takers, not cheap talkers, who put their name and reputation out there to generate wealth, job and prosperity to the people around them. One of these business leaders is Robert E. Deignan.

The Co-Founder of ATS Digital Services LLC

We should state here that ATS Digital Services, LLC is already a renowned brand in the Stock Exchange, with the name FLXS: NASDAQ GS. The work that the company does has also been improving the lives of many people and have changed quite a lot of significant structural problems in the business world. WIth the help of Robert E. Deignan, the Co-Founder of the company, the services offered by the company have now scaled to reach a level that can offer the most efficient, practical and valuable digital development tools that can make any company fly to its full limits.

The Professional Pursuits

It should also be mentioned here that the professional pursuits of Robert E. Deignan have not been that easy. He has transformed a company to a brand with a more general digital service culture. This is why the company he was once a CEO of a brand called ATS Digital Services.

The work he did for the transition is an indicator of how strong his desire and dedication for quality service today. ATS has already been established since 2011, and the work that Robert has for the company is one of the most outstanding works that the company has ever received. Without his involvement, it could be hard to reach the kind of success that it right now receives. With his leadership, ATS Digital Services is now certified by AppSteam to provide some of the premium call center services for different software applications.

The Kodak Eastman Company has been on the verge of a financial crisis for years and Sahm Adrangi thinks they will soon be declaring bankruptcy. This comes after he and Kerrisdale Capital, a company that he founded and is currently the chief investment officer of, published a negative report on the company’s future. A few months ago, Kodak announced that they would be releasing two new products that they insist will change how photographers get paid for their work. Unfortunately for Kodak, Sahm Adrangi does not agree.

Sahm Adrangi has made a large part of his fortune by predicting the failure of shady companies and arranging short sales of their stocks. This is essentially betting against a company instead of for like traditional stock investments. If Sahm Adrangi’s predictions about Kodak Eastman are correct, he and his investors stand to make a lot of money with this short sale attack.

These two new products that Sahm Adrangi doesn’t see even completely making it to market are being called KodakCoin and KodakOne. KodakCoin is a digital currency that is an attempt by Kodak to capitalize on the cryptocurrency craze that is sweeping the world. KodakOne, a concept that Sahm Adrangi considers a flat out “silly” idea, promises to compensate photographers for their work that is being used without a license. Supposedly, KodakOne will use blockchain technology to identify the images that are being used unlicensed and then contact the company or individual who is using them in order to request payment. While there are several legal and technical issues that Kodak will face in the development of this product, one of the biggest hurdles is one of the simplest ones. KodakOne would pay the photographers whose images are being used without permission with their new cryptocurrency KodakCoin. It’s highly unlikely that anyone would prefer this payment method to traditional currency.

For Kodak Eastman Company, their years of attempting to operate on a capital structure that just isn’t sustainable may finally be catching up to them. While KodakCoin and KodakOne may be exciting to investors now, it’s only time before they fizzle out.